http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms.html

Sir Ken Robinson (knighted 2003 for leading the British government's advisory committee on creative and cultural education), receives sponsorship by RSA Animate to discuss the link between 3 troubling educational trends: rising drop-out rates, schools' dwindling stake in the arts, and ADHD.


Industry Relation:


Robinson's captivating story is followed through comic book style storyboarding that adds augmented detail and clarity to the intricate subject matter of learning and current trends. It should be noted that innovative visual idea representation is championed in current media marketing techniques and can be observed vividly throughout Sir Robinson's speech.

Speaker nSpiration:


Sir Ken Robinson is a creativity expert and has studied cognitive creative retention for decades. His research has been held in high acclaim both domestically in Britain and around the world. Robinson is quoted as saying, "we are educating people out of their creativity", and his latest book, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything speaks in depth about all realms relating to cultivating creative thought. 


Cover via Amazon
Audience Motivational Techniques:


Sir Robinson is a seasoned speaker with many accolades and triumphs, yet his tongue in cheek spontaneity, use of innovative teaching aids (the comic style storyboard), and habit for asking questions of the listener keeps the audience engaged and anticipatory for what will happen next.


Understanding for the Topic:

                                 Image via Wikipedia

2 Reasons:

Cultural – How do we pass on the cultural genes of our community while understanding globalization?

Next, Robinson speaks of 2 modalities that drive the underlying school paradigm as we know it today.

Old modality: 

We go to school to get a job.

New Modality: 

No guarantees no matter the level of education towards employment.

Afterwards, Sir Robinson mentions our current educational system was conceived during the enlightenment and under the economic time of the industrial revolution.

Historically, this system has held in high regard 

knowledge of classical thought and theory. 

Ex - Aristotle, Plato, etc

The problem as Sir Ken Robinson sees it is that not everyone cares about classical ways of thinking.

New problems!!!

Ex – ADHD – kids are being medicated too routinely

NOW, children are being besieged from more stimuli than ever with "boring" stuff.

Interestingly, ADHD has grown parallel with the growth of end of grade testing. 

ADHD and ADD to Robinson are nothing more than “Fictitious Epidemics”.

The Arts are victims of this mentality.

Subsequently, Robinson discusses the array of separations present in our current school system.

Separations Include:

Subjects, age, gender, tax bracket, proximity location, etc

In the end, Robinson forwards the idea that our current system creates the sort of citizen needed for a bygone era. It creates a production line of children.

End Result: Standardization

NEW IDEA: 

Divergent Thinking – "capacity for creativity

having lots of possible answers to a single question"

Ex – How many uses can you think of using a paper clip?

%-age of children tested at genius level in kindergarten - 

98%

Re-Tested at 9 yrs old – 50%

Same children tested at 15 years of age - 35%

In closing, this sort of degeneration of creative thinking takes place because of how we teach.  Sir Robinson should be heralded and is included on this forum not for his ideas, which have been shared before by others, but for his clarity and innovative creative expression. 

Related articles

• Sir Ken Robinson and the Future of Education (via Lost in Grey Matter) (firstvirtual.wordpress.com)
• Sir Ken Robinson and the Future of Education (lostingreymatter.com)
• Why Should You Care About Creativity? - with Sir Ken Robinson (mixergy.com)
• Inspirational Speakers, Inspirational Stories - 2: Sir Ken Robinson (blogs.forbes.com)
• Changing education paradigms (guardian.co.uk)
• Speech Animation of Education Challenges Today (bnpositive.com)
• Divergent Thinking and Holistic Perspective (gregghake.wordpress.com)